Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Asia Study

The overall objective of this study is to prospectively determine the epidemiology of children with PARDS and describe its management in Asia. The first specific aim is to determine the prevalence of PARDS among PICU admissions. This will be achieved by establishing a systematic manner of screening patients and including them in this study. The second specific aim is to describe the use of pulmonary and non-pulmonary therapies in PARDS. This study will utilize an established dataset to extract pertinent and analyzable clinical data.The third specific aim is to determine the outcome of patients with PARDS. These outcomes will include functional data, PICU mortality, ventilator duration and length of stay data. This is a two-part study - the first part to establish the baseline prevalence and ventilator management strategies, the second part will include the implementation of an evidence based ventilation protocol as part of routine care. The same screening process, eligibility criteria and data collection will apply throughout the two parts. We aim to obtain data for approximately 2years prior to and 2years subsequent to the implementation of the ventilator protocol.